The unDefined Blog

Inspiration and stories from the mountains, cultures, peoples, and perspectives of our world.

Morromico Bay, Chocó, Colombia | July, 2018

Featured Posts & Collections

Trek Virtually to Everest (and more)

I had just been revisiting photos from my time with him in Khumbu in 2012 when I heard the news that Jim Whittaker sadly passed away on April 7 at age 97. I'd been going through photos, looking for a specific one, of a specific peak, when I went down a rabbit hole. Photos of […]

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Big Jim Whittaker: 1929-2026

Big Jim. A gentle giant. A gem of a human, and a loss that will be missed. Jim Whittaker, who passed away at 97 on April 7, was - to say the least - an amazing person. Like his twin brother - Lou Whittaker, who passed two years back - Jim was a massive man, […]

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Earning Respect

“Don’t get happy!” came the thundering voice from the sidelines. It was a classic saying of the late Norm Walker, my football coach, English teacher, poet, wisdom-giver, and wonderful man in high school at Holderness School. It sounded strange at first blush, but made sense the longer one played for Coach Walker: he hated cockiness, […]

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More articles and essays…

Let's go Higher than Everest

Together, let's go higher than Everest to raise funds in honor of Sam Heughan's 45th birthday and support dZi Foundation in its support of and partnership with 50,000 people in rural eastern Nepal.

ESSAYS & INSPIRATION NEWS

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Which Way Are You Going?

I love spring runs, and today was no exception. The morning air was crisp, a faint frost coating aspen catkins, mist enshrouding the reservoir, no sound aside from my footfalls and the cheery hoots of a Northern Saw-whet Owl. Up ahead the trail split, a fork I’ve arrived at many times before. The choices were […]

ESSAYS & INSPIRATION

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Lovejoy, McIntosh, Lincoln, & Law

“Your great-great-grandfather, Frank Richmond Milnor, sat right here in 1858,” my grandfather said, pointing to an unremarkable spot near the riverfront in Alton, Illinois. “He was just twelve, listening to the seventh Lincoln-Douglas Debate.” My sister and I nodded, listening absently, the study of our rapidly-delaminating ice cream cones of greater focus and import than […]

ESSAYS & INSPIRATION

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Numbed

I was going to write about chaos. The chaos raining down upon us by a populist fearmonger and his pedestaled, unelected, too-rich-to-really-care sledgehammer-wielder. The infantile shattering of all vestiges of American decency, a skulking retreat to shuddering isolationism and xenophobia paradoxically cast as a symbol of impending greatness. The resounding dearth of humanity in the […]

ESSAYS & INSPIRATION

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